St. Cloud schools adapt, accommodate with new hires

Graham Litterst helps some students of the Jump Start program with their daily oral language lesson Monday at Oak Hill Community School in St. Cloud<137> March 31<137>.(Photo: Gustin Schumacher, gschumache@stcloudtimes.com)

Story Highlights

District has 340.71 full-time equivalent employees in general education staffing; may rise to 353.81

English Learners supervisor says academic vocabulary is harder to build than conversational skills

District may hire 3.5 full-time employees in kindergarten, the largest grade-specific increase

The St. Cloud school district is growing — but before the community will see new brick and mortar, the district is likely to make additional hires this fall to accommodate the expanding and increasingly diverse student body.

The biggest bump in proposed positions in a single grade would come at the kindergarten level, indicating a new wave of students. The largest position increase overall would be in the English Learners program, which could add six full-time positions.

The number of students eligible for EL services continues to rise, and the district is becoming more diverse. More languages are spoken at home according to parent surveys, and a greater percentage of students use language services.

At a meeting last week where the board approved the district's plan to explore adding 10 classrooms to three different schools, human services director Tracy Flynn Bowe presented a staffing report that will add roughly 15 full-time positions in the district next year.

Of those spots, the district expects to hire 3.5 additional full-time employees in kindergarten, according to Bowe's report, the largest grade-specific increase.

"All of those increases are driven by the enrollments that we have," Bowe said.

"The additional students bring in additional revenue which drives the number of staff available to serve those students," Bowe said.

Adjusting numbers

Bowe said spring is always an anxious time of year for school staff, as they learn of fall enrollment numbers and whether staffing levels will increase or decrease next year.

And while they are planning to increase full-time positions, there may still be reductions for probationary staff in the coming month, something Bowe says is routine.

"We'll be adjusting between now and the start of the school year," she said.

When it comes to hard numbers, the district currently has 340.71 full-time equivalent employees (FTE) in general education staffing, Bowe said. In 2014-15, that number will likely jump to 353.81 full-time staffers, Bowe estimated.

Staff adjustments in the elementary years even out to 7.3 additional positions, while at the secondary level, full-time employees will grow by 1.64. The secondary level includes more than 20 adjustments in full-time allocations, with an additional 0.5 FTE in social studies here and a loss of 1.24 FTE in health there, for example.

When it comes to the growing EL program, the district expects to add six full-time positions.

English Learners

Natalie Prasch, the district's EL program supervisor, says staff will be added to bolster the secondary program.

"Our population continues to grow," Prasch says.

"For example, last year, we ended the year with a little over 1,200 students," she said, "and this year we are currently a little bit over 1,600 students who qualify for English Learner services."

Students who are new to the country or do not test proficiently in reading, writing, speaking or listening are eligible for EL services, which includes Jump Start.

The intensive program is designed to bolster students' English skills, and new additions at the secondary level will aim to increase that growth.

While many Jump Start students have strong conversational English skills, Prasch says academic vocabulary is much harder to build. Some core content-area classrooms will have an additional EL teacher to help students learn academic terms.

The program generally lasts for one year at the elementary level; Prasch says they will increase support at the secondary level to two years.

Patty Popp, the district's special education and student services director, says the level of help can be an intense drop-off from Jump Start to standard EL services, so the district is aiming to smooth that transition.

"Not all of our students will need that additional year; it will be very much on a needs basis," Popp said.

Prasch says students who speak Somali make up the largest portion of students who qualify for EL services.

Jump Start shift

The district has a Jump Start program at Discovery, Oak Hill and Talahi elementary schools and at both Technical and Apollo high schools.

There are more than 150 students in the EL program at Oak Hill, and a portion of those students use Jump Start.

"Jump Start is in its second year here at Oak Hill," Principal Joni Olson said.

Oak Hill students use to be transported to Talahi for Jump Start services, but as their population shifted and EL students increased, the program was moved to Oak Hill.

Olson says Jump Start is critical to helping students new to English, and she's very glad to have it in house.